A trucker was
injured on Monday and all lanes of westbound I-94 closed, after he flipped
his rig while attempting to merge from Ind. 49, the Indiana State Police
said.

According to
police, at 11:22 a.m. Bryan Ivan Larose, 54, of Salem, Wis., was traveling
“too fast to negotiate” the ramp from northbound Ind. 49 to westbound I-94
when his steelhauler overturned and slid approximately 100 feet, blocking
all westbound lanes. Larose’s tractor came to rest on its roof, facing
north, with the rear of his flatbed trailer against the concrete median
wall.

Chesterton
firefighters--assisted by a heavy wrecker dispatched by Joe’s Towing, needed
to raise the tractor in order to expose the roof--were forced to perform an
extensive extrication of Larose, CFD Deputy Chief Nate Williams told the
Chesterton Tribune today. “The seats had to be removed and part of the
steering wheel and the driver’s door peeled away,” he said.

Williams noted that
one of Larose’s steel coils was dumped on the interstate and partially
unrolled in the crash.

Police said that
Larose was transported to Methodist Hospital Northlake Campus in Gary for
treatment of non-life threatening injuries.

No other vehicles
were involved in the accident, police noted. Larose was driving for Kam
Industries Ltd. of Kenosha, Wis.

The CFD was on the
scene for almost an hour, before clearing at 1:14 p.m.